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Monday, May 14, 2012

Stewed Strawberry Rhubarb

Hiya! Happy Monday.

Did you have an excellent weekend and a fabulous Mother's Day? We have 3 grandmas and one mom that live close to us, so I was very busy buying gifts and making time to visit everyone. Yesterday we ate out for every meal .... let's just stay the pants are a little on the tight side today ;)

Can we get a big "awwww...." Regardless of what kind of mommy you are, it's nice to know you're loved <3

You may have noticed that I've been a bit absent and my blogging schedule's been all over the map. There's a few reasons for my absenteeism, but the big one is that I've been freakin' exhausted. Derek's finally given notice at his bartending gig and his last day is Saturday --- I can't wait until we can be a normal married couple and a team again, so that we aren't both constantly running in opposite directions! ﻿With the exhaustion, has come a complete lack of interest in creating new yumminess in the kitchen. I've been running on egg sammies, Greek Yogourt and Clif bars and haven't created much of anything in the past couple of weeks. I do have some new plans in store for myself and my blog and I'm hopeful that you'll be seeing a ton of ideas for how to eat a 'cleaner' diet in the coming weeks. I'm super excited and I hope that I'll be able to inspire you with some new healthy eats!

In the meantime, I had lots of requests for instructions on how to make the stewed strawberry rhubarb that I posted on last week's What I Ate Wednesday post. Fortunately for you, I happened to have a nice little visit with my grandma this morning and we she & my grandpa (I was in church clothes and heels!) picked a big bundle of rhubarb and sent me on my way with cooking instructions. Initially when I posted it, I thought that it was a combo of strawberries and rhubarb, but I have since been informed that there is a type of rhubarb known as strawberry rhubarb. Apparently the name refers to a very vibrant red rhubarb. There are absolutely no strawberries to be found!

Stewed Strawberry Rhubarb

It feels almost wrong to call this a recipe because it's the easiest thing ever!

6 cups rhubarb cut into 1/2" pieces

1 1/4 c water

4+ tbsp natural sweetener (I used Truvia - stevia would also be great)

Place the rhubarb and water into a medium-sized pot and turn the heat to medium high.

Bring the water to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium low. Simmer covered making sure to stir often.

*My grandma told me to be careful because the rhubarb tends to stick very badly to the bottom of the pot. I had no problem with this because I have very thick-bottomed pots, but keep an eye and stir often.*

I let mine simmer for 12 - 15 minutes until the rhubarb had all boiled down into a thick sauce. Remove from heat.

Add your sweetener. I personally like mine to be tart, but I have had it when it's super sweet as well. Just add as much sweetener as you like --- that's the nice thing with a natural sweetener, you can add it guilt free!

To clean, soak the rhubarb in cold water in your sink - it can get pretty sandy! Sometimes there a brown papery type coating on the stems and that will wash right off.

Once it starts to boil it cooks down quite quickly

Stir, stir, stir to prevent sticking.

Eat in small servings. Has been known to give really bad belly aches if eaten all in one sitting ;)

No, I'm not joking and yes, I have done it more than once!

My fave ways of eating the rhubarb is on its own when it's been chilled or over vanilla bean ice cream. It's also really good stirred into plain non-fat Greek yogourt and topped with some granola.